Digital video recorders (DVRs), which may be in the form of a portable device, such as a personal video recorder (PVR), a set-top box or a computer having a video interface and/or video capability provided from a digital or analog network source, are becoming ubiquitous in households and other locations. DVRs record video content, such as video content from a television program, in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device.
Typically, DVR devices provide a menu-driven graphical user interface (GUI) on a display, such as a television screen, where the user can select channels and television programs, such as via a remote control device, and set the DVR to record the selected television programs when the programs are being broadcasted. Once the viewer has set up the channels and programs to record, the recording schedule is saved in the DVR hard drive. The DVR automatically records the programs when these programs are broadcasted by the television stations using the recording schedule. The user can later play back the recorded video, such as on a television set.
Currently, users do not have the capability of recording relevant subsets of television programs, such as recording portions of a television program directed to a specific topic or topics. Instead, the DVR will record the entire television program, including portions of the television program that the user may not be interested in viewing thereby wasting space on the storage device as well as forcing the user to fast forward through sections of the recorded television program that the user is not interested in viewing thereby diminishing the user's experience.